THERE was a time when St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown could afford to be reckless with his money.

Like the day his wedding clashed with a Scottish Cup semi-final between Saints and Rangers at Celtic Park in 1989.

The thought of missing the replay following their draw got to him so much he made the decision to cancel his honeymoon so that he wouldn’t miss two games in a row.

But now the boy who sat on the supporters’ bus that followed Saints away from home in the days of lower league football is the man who runs the club.

And as the first anniversary of succeeding his father Geoff in the boardroom nears, he knows a second honeymoon period is over, this time in his professional as opposed to his private life. Or as he put it yesterday: “Responsibility has taken over from enjoyment.

“The club needs to find £4million every season to break even and find a team that keeps the supporter inside of me happy.”

Brown openly admits achieving that dual purpose has never been harder. He said: “Our gate receipts are holding up but when the team is bottom of the SPL you’re never sure how many fans will turn up.

“And in a recession you’re selling something people don’t need when it comes to corporate hospitality, so our income there has taken a drop.

“That’s why it’s a pleasure to be facing Celtic at home this weekend because they will generate money off the park and atmosphere on it.

“It used to be a club like ours would only meet Celtic or Rangers in a cup-tie environment. Now they’re our bread and butter.

“Facing one of the Old Firm was still a novelty in 1989 and I hadn’t legislated for us getting to meet Rangers in a semi-final when I booked up my wedding.

“When I heard the game had been drawn I immediately cancelled the honeymoon.”

It was what your average, run-of- the-mill fanatic would have done for the other love of his life, and Steve retains all the memories from his time as the boy who started a life-long affair with his club.

He added: “When my dad took over as St Johnstone owner we were part of Scottish football's lower orders and I watched games from the terracing. I remember the bus to Albion Rovers on a Tuesday night and what that felt like. Now I’m in the chairman’s seat and football’s a different proposition to me.

“I’ll always be compared to my father and what he did for the club during 20-odd years in charge, but it was in my make-up to want the chairman’s job.

“My father doesn’t lay down the law to me, even if other people still say, ‘Your dad would've done this’ or ‘Your dad would’ve done that.’

“But I knew there was a greater degree of personal accountability when people who’d previously have walked past me in the street start to talk about St Johnstone.”

The problem is the chairman needs more people to say hello to him when they’re inside McDiarmid Park having paid for a seat.

He said: “Fans might have high hopes but I have to put reality first and ambition second. We finished in the top six last season and still made a loss of £250,000.

“The club has no debt but we do have limited reserves of cash and we can’t go on eating into that sum on an annual basis. Football at our level has got to start talking about things like a wage cap and a fairer distribution of funds to all clubs.

“Supporters go on about the price of going to watch football but it’s a chicken and egg situation. I’d love to be able to let everybody into McDiarmid Park for a tenner but we’d run at a loss then steps would have to be taken to address that shortfall.

“As it is, we might have to drop our wage bill unless we can stop digging into our cash reserves every year, even if the consequence of that is being unable to attract the level of player we’d like to the club.”

Brown refuses to moan about tomorrow’s attendance possibly being affected by live television and the lunchtime kick-off.

He said: “How can I take their money and then complain about anything? It’s easy to get down about football but it’s better to do something about your problems. I’m shaking everything up at the club so we can generate more income.

“I’m 48 years old and my family think I’m mad spending at least three days a week here on club matters as well as running my own electrical firm and my father’s construction business.

“It can get stressful like this summer which was spent dealing with the situation at Ibrox. When I started to get the dodgy phone calls my reaction was, ‘How did these people track me down? But it has all died down now.”

Brown has also kept faith with young St Johnstone supporters of the future. He said: “We allow 300 kids under the age of 12 into our matches for free. The club is giving away £6000 of revenue by doing that while trying to balance the books. In an ideal world the fans would own, and run, every club.

“But football’s a business in the midst of a recession and so it can’t be that way. Which is why I need to find £4m annually and not lose the buzz I still have for my team.

“It didn’t affect my father’s life when he was faced with the same task. I was at his 50th wedding anniversary party last night.”